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Sunday, September 25, 2011

Yesterday I participated in a new brevet run in Central New Jersey which was put together by NJ Rando's Ron & Barb Anderson. This was my first Brevet since my DNF of the Shenandoah 1200K back in early June, and although I have been doing plenty of riding throughout the summer, it was really good to "get back in the saddle" before the end of the season.

The weather forecast called for potentially heavy rain all afternoon on Friday night, but we actually had a rain free day, although very humid. The route took us on some of the roads used in other NJ brevets, through Mercer, Monmouth, Ocean & Burlington Counties, but also some nice new roads, with somewhat varying terrain, which was great, instead of the mostly flatter roads through the NJ Pine barrens. The route was well planned by Ron, and excellent Q sheets for the first brevet that they put together.

I rode most of the day with 2 or 3 other riders, Rick Lentz, Norman Smeal, and later Roy Yates, whom I rode with quite a bit this year doing PA brevets, and who also had a successful PBP last month, which I enjoyed hearing about. The day was enjoyable, and we made good time. Most importantly, if this is my last brevet of this year, I am glad that I finished the year with a better feeling. I did say at the outset of this year, my 2nd, that I wanted to see where the journey would take me & what else I would learn, and I have learned a lot. Although my first attempt at a 1200K did not work out well for me at all, I would imagine that I will have learned from the entire experience and training, and the next time, I will also hope for some cooler weather.

As always, thanks for reading, and "Keep on Truckin!"
A picture before departure on a grey, humid, Fall morning.